Pucker Time! Man, That Was Close!

Jubalr · Jul 25, 2015

Went to a property to take some pictures for my brother in-law. House sits close to the road and I had forgot that across the road there was a steep hill full of tall trees. The quad was out of site and I am flying FPV. As I am backing away from the house, I hear this zzzt zzzzt zzzzt! I then realize what had probably happened, but I also realized I still had full control! Watched the video later and see the leaves I chewed up! Whew that was close.

As a side note; this place sits low in a valley and besides the pond there was almost no clear area to take off from with tall trees all around. I didn't expect that I would be able to get decent GPS, but after about 3 min I had 7sats and 2.4 HDOP. But as usual, I flew mostly in manual anyway.

rrmccabe · Jul 25, 2015

Thats great you caught it on video. Best tree trimming I have seen.

GoodnNuff · Jul 25, 2015

Yup, that was close! I did the same thing in a National Forest here in WA. Was flying (Phantom 2) backwards and went right through the upper limbs of an Aspen. Didn't even realize until after I watched the video. I could have easily ended up in the river.

Andrew Tarleton · Jul 25, 2015

Shame is you can't legally start that tree trimming business yet until FAA gets off their rump!!!!!!

Jubalr · Jul 25, 2015

Andrew Tarleton said:
Shame is you can't legally start that tree trimming business yet until FAA gets off their rump!!!!!!

Very True! That's why I didn't charge the landowner. Couldn't let it be considered commercial.

Adimuzio513 · Jul 25, 2015

Looks like if we can get some CF blades we got one more option for our solos. Forget a cherry picker I'm doing some solo yard work tomorrow.

Close call glad to see things ended up ok.

Raybro · Jul 25, 2015

Jubalr said:
Went to a property to take some pictures for my brother in-law. House sits close to the road and I had forgot that across the road there was a steep hill full of tall trees. The quad was out of site and I am flying FPV. As I am backing away from the house, I hear this zzzt zzzzt zzzzt! I then realize what had probably happened, but I also realized I still had full control! Watched the video later and see the leaves I chewed up! Whew that was close.

As a side note; this place sits low in a valley and besides the pond there was almost no clear area to take off from with tall trees all around. I didn't expect that I would be able to get decent GPS, but after about 3 min I had 7sats and 2.4 HDOP. But as usual, I flew mostly in manual anyway.

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Wow, yeah pretty close. You just patented the first flying brush saw!

I did the same thing when I first tried the Selfie. Went the opposite way I thought it was going to go......up over my house into the pecan tree and started trimming leaves and limbs (I didn't tell ya'll that part earlier...too embarrassed).

I hit pause in time to keep it from going deeper into the tree.

I was very surprised the props showed no signs of chips or damage.

marena · Jul 26, 2015

Here was my close call that I had today.

Jubalr · Jul 26, 2015

marena said:
Here was my close call that I had today.

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That was 2 close calls in the same flight. You should have bought a lotto ticket that afternoon..